Ferrari was born on 21 March 1952 in
Monterotondo, a municipality within the Metropolital City of Rome. She studied physics at Sapienza University of Rome under the supervision of Giovanni Vittorio Pallottino, earning a degree in 1976 with the thesis
On dispersion phenomena in a gravitational wave antenna. After working as a researcher at Sapienza University from 1977 to 1993, she became an associate professor in 1993, and full professor in 2000. Her doctoral students at Sapienza University have included
M. Alessandra Papa in 1997 and
Raffaella Schneider in 2000. ==Selected publications==